Being Human
by obsessionisawonderfulthing
Summary: Cas is a real person now. Human. And Dean has to teach him what it's like to be human. Crappy summary is crap. R
1. Chapter 1

"Cas! What the hell-?! Get inside!"  
Dean yelled as Cas stood outside in below freezing temperatures. In a tank top and a pair of boxers.  
"Dean? What?" Cas asked, clueless, walking over to Dean. He was practically blue, and shivering, but he didn't seem to notice.  
"Jesus, man, what did you do?"  
"I was outside." Cas frowned at Dean's language choice, but he didn't comment.  
"No shit! You're freezing to death! Do you not feel cold?" Cas cocked his head curiously at him. Dean sighed and wrapped his coat around the fallen angel. His skin was like ice. "You're human now, Cas. You gotta learn how to take care of yourself!"  
"oh." Castiel said blankly. Dean shook his head.  
"Damn this'll be hard. Ok. Cas. Look at me. If it's cold, you need to cover up." He put his hand on Castiel's cheek, checking his temperature. The heat of his hand on Cas' frozen skin made Cas shiver.  
"So this is what cold feels like. I can feel it now, Dean." Cas smiled a little, proud of himself for feeling something new.  
But it was rather uncomfortable.  
Extremely uncomfortable, actually. He started to notice his body shaking, and his frozen clothes against his body, and how his limbs were in varying degrees of numbness, and his eyes went wide as it hit him all at once.  
"O-oh."  
"Damn, Cas! C'mon, let's get you warmed up." he led him to the ugly brown couch in their hotel room, and wrapped him in blankets and sheets and pillows until he was practically surrounded by them.  
"I-I do not understand, Dean. This body...it is still unfamiliar."  
"You're cold, Cas. If we don't warm you up, bad stuff could happen." Cas nodded, all seriousness now.  
"So what d-do we do?" he looked confused at the stutter in his oddly shaky words. He put a hand to his shivering lips curiously, trying to stop his chattering teeth. Dean looked on, a bit amused, but then put a pot of water on the stove and began to heat it up.  
"Well, it's not a hard thing to fix. Don't blow a circuit or anything." Cas looked at him oddly at that last sentence, but Dean had already turned and taken a packet of instant hot chocolate from a cupboard. "Damn. Cas! C'mon, let's get you warmed up." he led him to the ugly brown couch in their hotel room, and wrapped him in blankets and sheets and pillows until he was practically surrounded by them.

"I-I do not understand, Dean. This body...it is still unfamiliar."

"You're cold, Cas. If we don't warm you up, bad stuff could happen." Cas nodded, all seriousness now.

"So what d-do we do?" he looked confused at the stutter in his oddly shaky words. He put a hand to his shivering lips curiously, trying to stop his chattering teeth. Dean looked on, a bit amused, but then put a pot of water on the stove and began to heat it up.

"Well, it's not a hard thing to fix. Don't blow a circuit or anything." Cas looked at him oddly at that last sentence, but Dean had already turned and taken a packet of instant hot chocolate from a cupboard. "Damn. Cas, do we have any marshmallows?"

"What do you need m-marshmallows for, Dean?"

"Do we have any?"

"Yes, I-I believe so. Freezer."

Why they were in the freezer, Dean may never know. But they were there.

The water started to boil then, and Dean poured it into a coffee mug. Then he shook the package into it, added as many marshmallows he could fit, and stirred it all together. It looked pretty damn good. He handed it to the blanket-covered man, who took it curiously."Go on, drink it! It's good!" he sat down as close as he could to the human blanket fort, and Cas took a sip. His eyes went wide, and Dean grinned uncontrollably as Castiel made a little gasping noise and finished the rest of it in record time.

"feel better?" Cas nodded enthusiastically.

"It tasted good. My stomach feels warm now. But my skin is still... Different." Dean smiled.

"You, my friend, have just had your first taste of hot chocolate." Cas smiled a bit then. " Now, though, to heat your skin, you need a shower."

"Shower?"

"oh my fucking god." Dean turned an alarming shade of red. "Well, gotta teach you sometime or another..."

He thanked God that Sam was on a case as he grabbed Cas' blankets, ripped them off him, and took his icicle hand and led him to the hotel bathroom. "Um... Ok. Take your shirt off."

Dean ignored the odd look Cas gave him, and busied himself with turning on the water, filling the shower with steaming hot water.

"Alrighty Castiel, step into the water." Cas looked at him like he was crazy, but he obliged.

He hissed as the hot water pierced his flesh uncomfortably. "You OK Cas?"

"Yes..."

Alright, so now Dean had a frozen, fallen-angel-turned-human with only his boxers on, standing in a shower, with no idea what to do.

This wasn't awkward at all.

Well, might as well go the whole nine yards while they were here.

"Well...um...Cas..ok. First you take this stuff-" he handed a bottle of shampoo to the soaked angel, "and you rub it in your hair...no not the bottle!" Cas looked down, sheepish. "Here, let me do it." he squirted some shampoo into his palm, and started rubbing it into Cas' cold scalp. "you don't want it in your eyes, Kay?"

Cas gave a tiny nod and closed his eyes as Dean lathered his hair.

It felt...nice.

Dean was getting soaked outside the shower, and it was kind of awkward reaching over so far to wash Castiel's hair.

"Hold on a sec." Dean stripped until he was just in his boxers and stepped into the shower behind Cas. "Alright. Now lets wash it out. He guided Cas' head backwards to the stream of water, rinsing the bubbles from the man's thick, black hair. His temperature was getting closer to normal, Dean noted.

" May I open my eyes yet, Dean?"

"Yeah, it's ok now." Castiel's bright blue eyes were now staring up at him, confused but accepting. Dean looked away, flushed red. He scrambled for another bottle.

" ok. Now we...we need to leave this stuff in your hair for a minute or two." he started working the conditioner into Castiel's impossibly gorgeous hair...

No.

He did /not/ just think that.

He closed his eyes, and opened them again.

"a...and now you need to wash your body." Why did this have to happen to him?!

"hm?" oh god.

He was going to have to do this for him, too?!

He took a deep breath, grabbed a cloth and soap, and steeled his manly pride for the beating it was going to take.

"T-turn around." his voice sounded different.

"Dean?"

"Just turn around, Cas." Castiel obliged, and Dean couldn't help but to take in the pretty, pale skin, water running down it like a waterfall. Dean mentally slapped himself and started washing Cas' body, being careful not to hurt him in any way. God this was... Dean didn't know. It was a weird feeling. Castiel's bluer than blue eyes, practically burning a hole in the back of his neck, didn't help the feeling any.

"You think you got it?" he said, looking up at the fallen angel. He held out the cloth. Cas took it and finished washing himself. He rinsed himself off, too, thank God. Then Dean turned around to step out...and felt hands in his hair.

This...this was /not/ happening.

"Cas?" Castiel made a little humming noise, and Dean felt the man's fingers on his scalp.

"Dude, you don't...I wasn't expecting..." Castiel 'shh'd' him and kept on washing his hair as if nothing was wrong.

And...damn. Dean could totally get used to this-

NO. No he could not. He mentally beat himself with the famous Winchester Feelings-Beater-Downer, and closed his eyes.

"Ok." Dean rinsed his hair out, but as he started putting conditioner in, he felt a cloth on his back.

He froze, and Cas stopped.

"Dean?"

"'sokay, Cas, just... Not expecting that."

"You did it for me."

Dean couldn't think of any reasonable response to that, so he let Cas wash his body for him. They rinsed off in silence.

"uh, Cas... 2 things, Kay?" Cas looked at him and nodded.

"One: do NOT do this with anyone else, they'd probably do horrible things to you. And two: we will not talk about this to anyone else. No one but us will ever know about this. Alright?"

Castiel nodded, face stern. Dean smiled and pulled the not-cold-anymore Cas' lips up to form a smile. He shook his head slowly, grin spreading. "Lighten up once in a while, dude!" he turned off the water and they stepped out of the shower, dripping and cleaner than they had been in a long time. Castiel headed for the bathroom door, but Dean grabbed his shoulder and spun him around, covering his head with a white towel and rubbing it over his hair.

"what-?"

"Gotta get dry, Cas!" Dean said, like it was obvious. (it kind of was). Cas enjoyed having the towel over his head, drying his hair. It was nice being touched like this. Castiel usually never got the chance. He made a content little humming noise and Dean laughed.

"Jeez, Cas. You're going to have fun being human." Castiel nodded. The towel was now drying his body, and it felt clean and soft and...Castiel yawned, realising that his eyelids were drooping a bit, his brain was getting fuzzy. Dean looked at him and shook his head.

"Teaching you how to be human is going to be one hell of a ride."

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Reviews are, as always, utterly welcome **cough cough**, but.../siiigh/, you don't have to~ If this is the first story of mine that you've read, then bask in the glory of the Lilly-ness.

To my other readers...I'll update my other stories soon, I swear!

~lilli~


	2. Chapter 2

Okay, I've decided. Each chapter is going to be one thing Cas learns about being human. This means that some chapters will be relatively short, but I'll try to alternate the short ones with the longer ones!

If there's anything you think Cas needs to learn, let me know and I'll be happy to put it in the story!

Thanks!

Now read and review, angels!

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Cas' head fell a little, then bobbed back up, blinking. Dean watched on, more than a little amused. When Cas looked like he was going to fall over, though, Dean helped him to the crappy hotel bed.

"What's goin' on?" Cas slurred, eyelids fluttering. Dean tucked the sheets up against his pale neck.

"You're tired. Sleep." Even though Castiel's eyes were barely open, he asked the question Dean was hoping not to answer.

"How? How do you sleep?"

'The world is really against me isn't it?' Dean mouthed, looking pointedly up at the sky.

"Show me how to sleep." Yes, it really was.

Dean sat next to Castiel on the bed, which creaked under his weight.

"Okay, Cas. Close your eyes." Cas shut his eyes. He seemed alright for a few moments, relaxing into the matress. Then he opened his eyes quickly, startling Dean.

"I can see them all. All of them, Dean." He looked terrified. Dean felt bad for him; the Winchester family had their fair share of sleepless nights, where every blink made a victim flash before their eyelids.

"Here. I'll help you out a bit, okay?" he nodded.

Cas' face looked at Dean sideways through the flat pillow.

"We will not mention this to anyone. You hear me?" Castiel made a muffled 'yes' noise.

And Dean climbed into the bed with him.

Cas made a noise of surprise, and almost involuntarily nestled into him. It was...

'okay', Dean told himself. 'Just okay'. Dean wouldn't admit it, but it felt amazing. They fit together like puzzle pieces and he could've sworn he was melting. Their breathing synchronized, for god's sake! Castiel closed his eyes, and this time, he kept them closed, wrapping his arm around the hunter.

Well this was heterosexual.

Totally.

But right now, Dean didn't care.

He curled into it, knowing that he'd regret this in the morning and that he'd utterly deny it.

He'd have to deny it.

But how could he deny /it/ ?

His heart.

It throbbed and twisted, reaching out to the sleeping man next to him. It ached, but he didn't mind it. He loved the dull throb, the way it made him want to just disappear into Castiel's soul.

But he was totally, utterly, devastatingly

straight.

Right?

They woke up in the same position the next morning. Sam was still gone, /thank god/, but that didn't make it not embarrassing. In fact, it was horrifyingly so.

"Good morning, Dean." Castiel's voice woke him up with a start. "Oh. I woke you. I apologize. Thank you for..."

Dean remembered his surroundings and untangled himself from Castiel. The fallen angel looked stunned...and lonely? No. He was imagining it. 'God, Dean, get it together!'

"Yeah...yeah. No problem. It was nothing. Just...don't mention it. Ever." He could've sworn he heard Cas suck in a breath, but it must have been his imagination.

"Oh. Nothing. Alright." Cas looked away.

"Sooooo!" Dean said, way too loudly. He winced at how fake he sounded. He coughed. "Let's get some breakfast."

"Alright. This is a human custom I have wondered about for milennia." Dean pitied him. He had never eaten before.

Well...he didn't think that Famine really counted. He shrugged.

"Okay then, off we go."

It was a disaster.

Cas had wanted to try everything on the menu, and Dean didn't have the heart to say no. Dean couldn't have Cas not eat as much food as he wanted! He'd never eaten before! The other diners didn't get it. And it was a pretty high-class restaurant, too. So they wound up pissing off the waitress and cooks, getting horrified stares from the rest of the diners, and taking most of the food home for later. Sam was going to kill them when he got back. But Dean didn't care.

"Food is good, Dean." Cas flopped gracefully into a chair. Dean had no idea how he could do that. Even if he was doing something utterly silly or lazy, he always did it perfectly. It confused him.

"Cas. That might have been the best thing ever." Cas let out a little huff of a laugh, and sunk deeper in his chair, a small smile etched onto his face.

"It might have been, yes."

Sam came back about twenty minutes later, to find Dean and Castiel laying on the bed. The TV was on, but they were utterly asleep.

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:) Reviews are like little cookies shaped like tacos that gently rain from the sky into my brain.

lilli`


	3. Chapter 3

Yay, third chapter! :)

I literally made this entire fic so I could do this chapter.

But I will do more chapters, don't worry!

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Bobby Singer had never seen Dean laugh this hard.

When Sam and Dean had asked if they could spend a few nights, Bobby had obviously agreed. The boys were like his sons. But they brought an unexpected, used-to-be-angelic guest with them, and it had thrown Bobby for a loop at first, but then he saw it.

The way Castiel looked at Dean, and the way he looked back. The friendly, if sometimes awkward banter. Dean's showing Castiel pop culture references. Then Bobby knew.

Even when he was little, Dean had always been more serious and realistic than most. It wasn't his fault, though. John had always kept Dean on his toes, making him work hard, making him take care of Sam, making him fight demons, making him keep his emotions tucked up and bottled away.

Bobby was astonished that such a small thing could have this miraculous effect on the Winchester, whos laughs had either been faked or sarcastic.

Now, however, Dean was almost doubled over, laughing at Castiel.

Who had the hiccups.

"Dean...!" Sam was giggling, too, but...

"Cas... Cas, just...!"Cas' face was absolutely priceless. He tried to talk, but every time, he was inturrupted by a hiccup, and his blue eyes would go huge.

He was confused at the Winchester's hysterics, but every time his chest convulsed, and he made a small squeaking noise, he became more and more sure of what caused his laughter. And each time, he grew more and more concerned.

He had absolutely no idea what was going on.

"Cas. Cas, listen to me...Th... These are hiccups. They're not bad...Just hilarious. You'll get over it, okay?" Cas nodded, hiccupping. Dean's shoulders shook with laughter.

He felt bad, of course, but Castiel, the dead serious fallen angel, just looked like a scared kitten, and it was maybe the best thing Dean had seen in his entire life.

"Dean. Do...! Do not laugh!" Of course, this only made Dean crack up harder.

Bobby and Sam had stopped to watch the usually stoic Dean transform into an unrecognizable man, one who's tears were from laughing, not sadness. The new man that Castiel could make so happy so easily.

The new Dean Winchester.

Bobby gave Sam a knowing smile, and Sam grinned back. Cas saw them and frowned at them, curious as to what their smiles alluded to.

They waved him off, and he hiccupped again.

Eventually, Castiel's hiccups stopped, but by then Bobby and Sam had gone to their beds, and Dean was laying on the floor, gasping for air. His cheeks hurt from the solid hour of hilarity. Castiel was not as amused.

"Cas...I'm sorry...that was the funniest..." he dissolved into giggles again at the thought. Castiel smiled.

He would have to get the hiccups more often.


End file.
